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Monday, September 22, 2008

First day and first blog post

Well I’ve arrived. Flight over was okay and thankfully my hotel is lovely.I met up with some fellow EGEE colleagues for dinner and some beer as you do.First impressions of Istanbul are really good.The city is busy and vibrant and the sound of car horns is constant but it all feels friendly and fun.I’ve not had much sleep due to problems with the air con in my hotel room (which will hopefully be fixed today) and the call to prayer coming from the mosque loud speaker at some very early hour.Hearing that really reinforced that fact that I’m in Istanbul!

So currently at the conference venue where Neasan (from GridPP) and I along with some others have set up the UKI Federation stand.If you want some good freebies and lots of interesting leaflets and information about the UK National Grid Service (NGS), GridPP, OMII-UK, Grid Ireland and NeSC, come to our stand!The stand was already rather hectic at the first coffee break this morning and delegates were picking up leaflets as fast as we could lay them out or perhaps it was the pens they were after…

I’ve had a quick look round the venue and it’s gorgeous.Most importantly the wireless works!I’ve had a look at the room where my workshop on grid dissemination is taking place on Thursday and it’s big!So if you’re involved in grid outreach in any way or just want to hear what people are doing to spread the message about how wonderful grid is, then make sure you come to Kocatepe Hall on Thursday at 4pm.

Right lunch is beckoning even though my appetite is still on UK time (my stomach thinks its 10.30am at the moment).Fingers crossed that the food is good!